What must we do to stop this epidemic of lost life from our homes and communities?

Thanks in advance.

Destee

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my beautiful sister,this question has been[debated-discussed-argued about-cried over]and it will continue to be as long as there are brothers going to prison,the only thing that i can say is what i firmly believe...change has to start with the person himself until a man looks into the mirror of his very soul and says enough is enough then our brothers will continue this tragic downward spiral,yes counseling from the many sources available are of help of course but no real self help comes about until one decides to help himself....AND MEAN IT...peace my sister.

What must we do to stop this epidemic of lost life from our homes and communities?

Thanks in advance.

Destee

Click to expand...

Until we sieze and control what the IN THING is, this trend will continue.

it's not so much poverty or lack of education, speak to some of these youth counselors and church and mosque volunteers who visit thes penal institutions and they will tell you straight up, many young men see prison as a Rights of Passage.

We need to change the paradigm.

The prison population increased after COINTELPRO, desimated the Black movement in the mid to late 70s and the community was floooded with druga, there was an upsurge of imprisonment , but not of Black youth.
in the 70s there wwere over 15 different gangs in NYC but youth did not sell hard drugs or listen to music glorifying that or other crimes like murder and pimping.
The crime rate and prison rate increaseddramaticaly as well as the youth homicide rate during the early 80s.
Gangsta rap glorified criming and prison life.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRfj1c3G6mY&feature=related

It was easy for children as young as 12 or 13 to sell crack and heroin in the major cities as well as carry a gun.
This was a new phenomenon.

Once the syndrome is reversed the pathology is reversed,
but it has to take a national unified effort because these little groups and things we do here and there are not effective in stemming this tide.

Now in NYC there are basicaly only 2 gangs in the Black community and 6 in the hispanic, but the slinging continues and the prisons get filled.
Once we realize that we are fighting against a business rather then just some children falling through the cracks, then maybe we will realize that greater efforts and different methodologies must take place.

I have always stressed the 7 Principles of the Ngozo saba. Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle

Now if the youth knew and embraced that the ay they embrace, thier Crips initiations, and getting Blooded, and thesecret handshakes then much of what is going on will subside.

my beautiful sister,this question has been[debated-discussed-argued about-cried over]and it will continue to be as long as there are brothers going to prison,the only thing that i can say is what i firmly believe...change has to start with the person himself until a man looks into the mirror of his very soul and says enough is enough then our brothers will continue this tragic downward spiral,yes counseling from the many sources available are of help of course but no real self help comes about until one decides to help himself....AND MEAN IT...peace my sister.

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Folks are not manipualted as individuals, they are manipulated on mass, and when anyone finds it profiable to see someone in degradation , they do it to the people enmasse.
We were not dragged in those slave ships from a continent that practicaly knew no crime and had no prisons, or drug dealers, or addicts, marriage counselors, or psychiatrists, nor unemployment, or unwed mothers, as individuals and those who need the prisons filled for profit will finfd ways to do it enmasse.

What must we do to stop this epidemic of lost life from our homes and communities?

Thanks in advance.

Destee

Click to expand...

Peace,

By knowing better and doing better as parents and guardians. Our youth fall victim to the devil's (un)justice because they lack the Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding of self. This is common when the children ain't buying what the parents are selling or even worse, there ain't no parents around to begin with.

What must we do to stop this epidemic of lost life from our homes and communities?

Thanks in advance.

Destee

Click to expand...

Unless we are willing to deal with the 1 ton elephant in the home. Besides throwing a large amount of cash and government programs at the problem, nothing will change. BET has raised a generation of our youth and not well. We all sat back and neither did nor said a thing while this was going on. Some of us jumped down the throats of the few that did, as haters or anti black.
This is a self inflicted injury. We must deal with it ourselves. +95% of all inmates come out of oow homes. This has been documented and tracked for over 40 years. It is currently a long term study of both the FBI and the CDC. We steadfastly, refuse to deal with it.

" ...ultimately, the man you sleep with is a direct reflection of your character. "

....some women spend more time thinking on what outfit they will wear to the club, than thinking about who is the best man to be father to their children....

I suggest that we go read "The Philosophies and Opinions of Marcus Garvey" and "Criminalizing a Race" by Dr. Charshee McIntyre. Only then will we see that this is nothing new. Garvey's book reveals that the ratio of black men incarcerated in his time is the exact ratio as today. Dr. McIntyres book reveals that this was all part of the plan from the 1800's, only back then the prison population was 100% black women instead of men. Why?...because their goal was to stop us from reproducing.

As long as we keep dealing with the branches of the tree as if it is the whole tree, we will never arrive at the answers we seek...and if we ever decide to see the tree instead of just the branches then we will still have to go to the roots of the tree to deal with it...and that is what we are most afraid of, because then we will have to begin calling it what it is and handle our business accordingly. Instead we done bought into the media hype. Instead we have surrendered our children to their environment and their miseducation in school. Instead we have become the very things that they subconsciously and consciously are rebelling against and we act like we can't see it.

Back in the day the white man used to perform in black face...today we perform in white face and just don't see it.

I suggest that we go read "The Philosophies and Opinions of Marcus Garvey" and "Criminalizing a Race" by Dr. Charshee McIntyre. Only then will we see that this is nothing new. Garvey's book reveals that the ratio of black men incarcerated in his time is the exact ratio as today. Dr. McIntyres book reveals that this was all part of the plan from the 1800's, only back then the prison population was 100% black women instead of men. Why?...because their goal was to stop us from reproducing.

As long as we keep dealing with the branches of the tree as if it is the whole tree, we will never arrive at the answers we seek...and if we ever decide to see the tree instead of just the branches then we will still have to go to the roots of the tree to deal with it...and that is what we are most afraid of, because then we will have to begin calling it what it is and handle our business accordingly. Instead we done bought into the media hype. Instead we have surrendered our children to their environment and their miseducation in school. Instead we have become the very things that they subconsciously and consciously are rebelling against and we act like we can't see it.

Back in the day the white man used to perform in black face...today we perform in white face and just don't see it.

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Also we must return to our African value system.
The Europeans vagaries about a clear cut good and evil cloud the minds of all they enslave and colonize,
so that some won't seek a knowledge of self but a forgeting of not just self but community, via gang acticity and clocking.

We as adults ,
need to learn how to make, the Husia, the Alaashe, and the Nguzo Saba
the IN THING amongst our youth, and let those values naturaly propogate underground the same as so much anti-cultural and anti -community attitutdes and activities have propagated thus far.